Former Navistar employees enjoy chance to reconnect, share memories

Navistar, a transport truck assembly plant once located on a large section of Richmond Street in Chatham, may be gone, but the memories and pensions live on.

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Nearly 140 former employees gathered at the Moose Lodge in Chatham Thursday night for the return of the annual reunion banquet since it was closed down by the COVID-19 pandemic after the last one in 2019.

It’s been 15 years since the plant, long demolished, closed its doors, but many former workers continue to enjoy a stable income decades after retiring thanks to a company pension.

Working at the plant was a family affair for Richard Burke, 99, and his two sons Mark and Jim.

“The pay check was good,” said Richard Burke, who has been retired for 38 years after putting in 22 years in the plant.

When asked what it’s like to see old friends, he said, “I haven’t seen anything yet.”

He added many of his old friends have passed away.

Mark and Jim Burke both were able to retire before the plant closed.

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Mark Burke, who worked 30 years at Navistar, recalled it was quite a shock when the plant closed.

“Since I started there was always a rumor the plant is going to close,” he said. “I thought, ‘What a crock,’ I’ve been hearing this for 30 years then all of sudden it closed.”

He added there were a lot of good guys in the plant and the pay was really good.

Jim Burke put in 35 years before retiring, said, “There were a lot of good days, a lot of bad days.”

He added it over 50 years since he first started at the plant “and they’re still paying me.”

When asked if his dad helped get him and his brother a job at the plant, Jim Burke said, “I don’t whether he actually got us in or not, but he had a good name, so that helped.”

Bob Roebuck lied about his age to get a job at the plant prior to his 18^th birthday.

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He said spent 35 “wonderful years” working at the plant, retiring at age 52.

“I was too damn young, I should have stayed longer,” Roebuck laughed.

He said the job “paid the bills and I had a lot of friends there, that’s for damn sure.”

Former assistant plant manager Pete Brennan, who worked at the plant from 1970 to 1999, enjoyed being at the reunion.

“It’s nostalgic, it’s nice to see everyone particularly since this (event) hasn’t happened in such a long time,” he said.

He joked: “I expected a lot canes, crutches, wheelchairs and walkers and there’s not as many as I thought.”

Brennan admits for many years he thought his bosses were being tough him, but noted, “In hindsight, I realized they were mentoring me.”

He said there were “fabulous people” working at Navistar.

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“I look back and remember you couldn’t go anywhere in that plant when somebody wasn’t shaking your hand, talking to your or smiling.”

Alveana Willder, who stated in 1977, was one of the first group of women to work on the shop floor in the plant.

“It wasn’t nice at first, but they got used to us,” she laughed. “We had to set then straight.”

But, she added, “They were, genuinely though, a bunch of nice guys.”

Having worked at the plant for 28 years, Willder said she liked the pay it was good place to work.

Former front office employees Judy Brearley and Debbie Vandewauwer were enjoying catching up at the reunion.

Brearley, who was secretary to the chief engineer in the product engineering department, enjoyed 26 years at Navistar beginning in 1977.

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“Product engineering was all nice, young designers and they made me feel really young and kept me up-to-date,” she said.

Brearley had been a secretary at General Motors in London and moved to Chatham and applied to Navistar and was hired.

She remembers when the plant employed 2,000 workers and there was plenty of work.

“It was great.”

Vandewauwer, who worked at Navistar in 1973 and retired in 2004 while in the accounting department, began working in the keypunch area filling out time cards.

“Everything came through key punch so (workers) could get paid,” she said.

Vandewauwer said she had good friends, good pay and it was a lot of fun working at Navistar.

When asked what made the plant so special, she said, “A lot of jobs, a lot of opportunities. It’s too bad it’s gone.”

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